Dinner at Comme Ça - 9/15/2011

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Dinner at Comme Ça - 9/15/2011

What does it say about a restaurant that you've been to before, but don't remember?

Last January (a whole NINE MONTHS ago), my wife and I had lunch here with her brother, niece and nephew. So now we're back in Las Vegas for a conference, and I make reservations at Comme Ça -- only to realize, once seated, that, "Hey -- this place looks familiar."

Can I just point out that doesn't bode well for the rest of the meal?

We were a party of six. We dined here on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011. It's not even 48 hours later, and I cannot remember what I ordered. Now the wine was the 2007 Navarro "Methode l'Ancienne" Pinot Noir (which the sommelier painstakingly pointed out was his last bottle). I know three of the people ordered salmon for their main course. I know that my wife ordered the frisée-and-lardon salad. But that's pretty much it.

Can I just point out this, too, doesn't bode well?

OTOH, the restaurant is one of the LOUDEST that I've experienced in quite some time. Painfully so, and this was due to the conversation at other tables, not music.

This, too, doesn't bode well . . .

The meal was good. Nothing more. None of us -- and the group of us dine out together frequently -- had anything bad; no one complained; no one returned their food to the kitchen. It was a good meal. And that was the problem: "good," as in "better than average," is simply not memorable, not enough of a reason to come back, not enough of a reason to recommend this restaurant to friends.

We used to say, in the wine trade, that the difference between a Gold, a Silver, and a Bronze Medal was the difference between a wine YOU would buy for yourself, a wine you'd recommend to your sister, and a wine you'd drink (but only if someone else was paying).

Comme Ça is a bronze medal. (I only hope I remember that before I accidentally make yet another reservation here . . . . )

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